In this pivotal episode, Danielle Levy shares how she took the best of what she’s learned working with some of today’s top influencers and uses it to help CEOs grow their 6 and 7 figure businesses like never before.
You’ll learn the importance of defining your role as a CEO, when to grow or scale, and how to easily overcome the unique challenges faced by online businesses.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Welcome, welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. I am here with yet another high demand coach. And that is Danielle Levy. She is a sought after executive who helped six and seven figure online business owners expand with clarity and efficiency. After her experience in the traditional business world, Danielle established the boardroom leak to give other entrepreneurs, a little black book of trusted industry professionals to help them grow their businesses without long term overhead. I absolutely love that. Can’t wait to explore it more. But Daniel, first I just want to welcome you to the show. And I’d love for you to just start us off with your story. How did you get into coaching and why?
Danielle Levy
Yeah, so thank you for having me. I think my story is one of a leap of faith for sure. And so I hope that’s something that your listeners take with them. But I came up in the Boston ad agency seemed like for anyone that seen madmen, that’s pretty much what it was. A few years later, obviously. And we’re you know, it was a day and age where it was faster to put me on a plane to Europe than it was to hire like the FedEx person, right? It was, it was an incredible experience. I did that for about 15 years, I moved on to other types of communications consulting firms, design agencies, really the best of the best of the best. And that led me I mean, I had incredible experiences. But that led me directly to a path of burnout. And a couple of things happened. One is I was like, I can’t continue to do this. And so I went to graduate school. The other one was I had a milestone birthday. And I was like, Well, I just need to relax, I was so burnt out, I kid you not like my cat would not even go anywhere near me because I think I was just so stressed out what time. And I went into, you know, the deep areas of the internet and figured out what I wanted to do. And I had a couple of girlfriends that were ready to go with me to this amazing retreat and sort of like a summer camp kind of experience. And one by one, they all had to cancel. And so then it was just me. And I thought, Well, I still have this milestone birthday, what am I going to do, and I went for it. And as an introvert It was super intimidating. For me. What I didn’t realize was, this was an event that some of the biggest influencers in the online space were at. And I was just hanging out with him in Asheville, North Carolina, enjoying my birthday, trying to just, you know, break free from all of it. And if you’ve ever been to Asheville, when it rains there, it rains. And so we were staying at this kid’s camp, and we’re quite literally rained into our bunks. And so that’s how I got to know these seven and eight figure influencers. And I didn’t have any idea who they were. And when I think about it. Now I was like, If I had known who these people were, because I now I have them. So built up in my mind, I never would have gone, but I just went with ignorance. And that’s how I had my introduction to the online space because I was just talking to people about my experience, and just the way the conversation style. And that immediately set me on a trajectory in the online space of working with some of the biggest names. And I did that for several years, just continuing to work with those seven and eight figure clients, I made sure that I spent a lot of time working in the online agencies so that I understood, you know, I worked for a funnel agency, I worked for a launch agency, I worked for all of you know, all the different things so that I could really take that corporate experience that I had, and kind of reframe it into this new place. And it’s been a wild ride ever since then. And I am just so grateful for that birthday.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. What a story. I know, it’s so cool. And it’s funny how like those hard decisions, you know, tend to be the things that we just step into something we never quite expected, you know, there’s just something about that. It’s really special. So we’ll fast forward a little bit, then you’ve been you doing work with these entrepreneurial organizations, and then you land in in this online space. And you said, Hey, I’m gonna help other entrepreneurs. Tell me a little bit about what you would say some of the most important work that you’re doing now.
Danielle Levy
I have really focused my energy on working on with those businesses that are coming up and or are in the growth phase. I have spent quite a bit of time working with companies that are in the scaling phase. And just personally, it’s it’s not quite the work that I want to be doing. Obviously, it’s a goal for all of my clients that they get to that scaling phase. And what I experienced a lot in those early stages and in that growth phase is a lot of passion printers or CEOs of small business is experiencing a huge amount of growth and many of them got into the business be Because of the thing that they’re bringing to the world, but don’t necessarily have the business expertise. So it’s really an incredible journey for me to work with them to really own that CEO seat and think about how they can be the CEO, how they can create a business and a legacy rather than just creating like a high paying salary.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah and what would you say? There’s a couple of things that you’ve kind of split. First, I’d like to dig into that. What would you say is difference between the growth phase and the scaling phase for your client?
Danielle Levy
Yeah, I would say the growth phase is you’ve experienced, like a real positive KPIs, key performance indicators, your revenue is up, clearly, you’ve established that there is some kind of a need in the market. But you’re not quite sure. You know, your I guess I’m thinking of it kind of as like that octopus, right? Like, you’ve got all those like little tentacles out there. They’re all bringing money in, but you don’t know what your core focus is going to be where you really want to focus your time and your energy to really go all in on something.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And because I think that’s helpful. Because for, for me, in my world, there’s a very, very big difference between what I would the same as you call that early growth stage versus scaling up and the and where one of the biggest mistakes I see people making is trying to treat the early growth stage like a scaling stage, right, of trying to kind of embrace the complexity of scaling something up, when you really haven’t quite figured out how to grow it consistently over time. Would you agree with that?
Danielle Levy
I would absolutely agree with that. And I have seen too many businesses jump right into the scaling phase, and they actually crush, they crush their own business, because they’re not able to support it, they lose their team, they lose customers, and then they really need to go back and restart building again. So I would really encourage anyone is they’re inching towards that scaling phase to really think about the timing of it, and how they’re going to support it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. Interestingly enough, the way that we kind of label those two stages is we label the growth stage fun, and the scaling stage predictable success. And then to an extent, it’s like, yes, you want both, and to a great extent, predictable successes, a lot of fun. But there’s something about the simplicity of a small business, that that most entrepreneurs overlook, in my opinion, and they don’t recognize it until it’s gone. Right? Most folks wouldn’t say, Hey, I’ve entered this stage of fun, but I can’t tell you how many folks have come to me, you know, when they’ve got, you know, 20 plus employees, you know, 50 100, whatever it may be. And they say, it’s just not fun anymore. Right? It’s one of those things that you rarely see moving forward, but you miss in the rearview mirror. And so what do you see? What do you see your clients doing that are that are loving what they do the most, what would you say is the key to that?
Danielle Levy
I’m really listening to their own intuition and having a small, trusted community, I think it’s very easy to get wrapped up into all the newsletters and all the coaches and all that you should be doing this and you’re at this phase, you should be doing that. If it’s out of alignment with who you are. One, it’s going to, it’s going to be more work for you. But two, there’s probably going to be some friction with it in other areas of your business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I was talking with a client the other day, and I was like you’re shooting on yourself again. It’s like it’s that. And, and I think it’s actually a relatively new phenomenon. Because there are so many coaches, there are so many business books, there are so many great ideas, there are so many, you know, marketing opportunities, I think there’s more pressure than ever on entrepreneurs to try and boil the ocean to try and do everything. What have you found kind of in light of that are actually the few things that we really need to dial in on in that growth stage?
Danielle Levy
Yeah, I would say, really getting clear on the role of the CEO. What are the things that that you that you, the CEO should be doing and that someone else in your team should take over for you looking at the systems and the people that were once working that probably are just about to or have broken, that are that are pulling you back into the business? And again, like I said, really just building it as a legacy business rather than high paying salary?
Scott Ritzheimer
Right. What would you say? So the role of the CEO and in these growth stage companies is that pretty consistent from one organization to the Other, or do you find that it’s it’s much more tailored to the founder CEO themselves?
Danielle Levy
I going to say both. I think there are some things that are very consistent, I am a firm believer that something like company mission and values are not things that you jot down once and you forget, and then you never share with your team, they need to be embodied, they need to be operationalized, right? Those those visions, those great big ideas are things that can only come from a CEO, those are very consistent. You know, across most businesses, I also think, depending on the industry CEOs tend to be the subject matter expert. And I think that’s an area that you really want to amplify your CEOs and the business with that secret sauce. But I also think that the solution for scaling that and really amplifying that is very different from company to company.
Scott Ritzheimer
That makes sense, that makes sense. Now, one of the things that I noticed when I was doing some research on on, you know, your work and your background, you talk a lot about online businesses, in particular, and even in kind of the intro to talking about building funnels and doing things like that. I guess first, what would be your working definition of an online business? And then to how do those differ from? I would say, a non online business?
Danielle Levy
Yeah, you know, it’s an interesting question, because, um, I think every business for the most part, needs to be an online business to some extent, right. Um, you know, I work with clients, you know, I have a really big client that is a dentist. Now, you wouldn’t think you need to physically go to the dentist, for the most part to have your cavity filled and your teeth fixed or whatever. But in this day and age, in many markets, you still need to do all of the marketing to drive the traffic to get the people to walk in the door. Right. So, you know, I guess, I guess for me, and I’m not really answering your question here. It’s more about the percentage of localization that is involved with the business rather than are they operating online or not?
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it? Got it. Okay. So, well, using that definition, what would you say, you know, for someone sitting in that founder, CEO seat, have an online business outside of their, you know, the, their kind of geographic location? What are some of the big, big things that they need to be focusing on? Again, especially in that growth, stage?
Danielle Levy
Brand, clarity, for sure. I think it’s very, very hard to see your business from someone else’s perspective. You have seconds of someone, someone’s time when they come to your website, or when they Google you, or however they’re finding you online. They need to know instantly how you’re going to solve their problem, whether it’s a problem that they know that they have, or they don’t know that they have, and that you are the answer for it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Very good. Now, in light of that, what do you see folks trying before they come in to work with you or someone like you, and how does that go?
Danielle Levy
Generally, I think this is your phrase, actually, they’re trying to boil the ocean. Right. And most small businesses don’t have the capacity. To do that, I would much rather figure out what the mountains are a, you know, a quarter of at a time, two quarters at a time. Contrary to popular opinion, I am not a believer in annual planning. I mean, I think it’s good to do business planning. And when you’re planning a three year planning, don’t get me wrong, but I think too much changes, right? So really understanding what are the items that if we don’t get these resolved, they’re actually going to hinder the business. And then I look at the items, if we can get these items are solved, they’re actually going to speed up the growth of the business. And that’s how I look at the businesses. With my clients. I also do, and I would encourage all CEOs to do this a real holistic look at their business. You know, it’s not only about the sales and the marketing, but it’s about your operations and your back end as well. If your if your value if your offer and your back end don’t align with all of that great marketing and sales that you’re doing. Again, it’s not it’s not moving you as fast as you need to be.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. I and that’s a great, great example of one of those things where, you know, if you’re in that scale mode, predictable success, you’re working on multi year projects, multi year plans, you have to plan multiple years out right now you have to maintain the adaptability and that’s where a lot of larger organizations get stuck is it’s like this is the plan and that’s all we’re ever going to do. They missed the opportunity. But small businesses, you know, if you fall into you find a tool that’s helpful for us one, and it’s like, you have to have a three year goal. And you have to go after that three year goals. Like, I have no idea what time you know. And so you can spend a lot of time sweating it, you could feel really bad about yourself, because you don’t have a three year goal. Or you could just say, hey, what do I need to do next? And and in that growth phase, those you know, like, you’re saying those those shorter term goals that are that are intentional, right? We don’t just want to be wandering around all over the place. But intentional is really the recipe for success have found. Yes, I would agree with that. For sure. Fantastic. I love it. It’s such a great point. So this is a question. I love to ask everybody. And it’s even where we got the name of the show. But the question is this, what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish every business leader, entrepreneur online business owner, to that was listening today knew.
Danielle Levy
In my experience, and I’m making a broad statement here, but it is my experience, every business behind the scenes is pretty much a mess. There’s, there’s, there’s there’s varying stages of messiness, and dirtiness. But, you know, like to go out there and just see, you know, the glitz and the glamour, and they’re killing it. And their social media numbers are, you know, they announced this and on NPR, like, whatever the thing is, right, like, behind the scenes, there’s a whole different story of what is happening. And that it’s really important that people recognize that there. Everyone is going through this everyone is learning from each other depend on your communities dependent on your network, because people are all over just figuring it out together.
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s so good. Now in light of that. Let’s say you embrace the fact that, hey, this is just a messy process. How do you know when this is a mess that matters? Or this is a mess? That’s just part of the process.
Danielle Levy
I always go back to looking at numbers. And I’m not an inherently a numbers, person. But I’m not even so much what the numbers are, whether you sold $100 worth of goods or $1,000. But looking for the trends, and you know, we were consistently selling this much, and then there was a drop off. Okay, why is that? This number has skyrocketed. Why is that? Those are the messes that I always dig in on. When I look for trends, when things are changing, when I’m seeing patterns of numbers. Understanding and really diagnosing the metrics is, is really important to me.
So good. All right, a question here. And then I’d love to see how we can get people connected with you. And you know, hear more about what you do, because I know that is just absolutely resonating with some folks. So but before we get there, I’d love for you to take off your your kind of coach, consultant advisor hat for a moment, put on your CEO hat and kind of jump in the ring with us as CEO of your business. As a leader, what do you think is the next stage of growth for you and your business? And what challenges do you think you’ll have to overcome to get there?
Yeah, um, you know, I think I am that very typical CEO. In many ways, like I explained in sort of my my founder story, I experienced a tremendous amount of growth, and I had the opportunity to work with influencers and in businesses that I never ever dreamed that I would have the opportunity to. And, you know, that just it was amazing experience, but it isn’t where I want to head. And so for me, also, I think you touched on this, there’s so many coaches and strategists and there’s so many people out there, you know, really letting people know that I am who I am I and then I’m really passionate about the work that I’m doing. And not to get caught up in, oh, she’s worked with so and so or she has this fancy degree, or she’s done this, that or the other thing, like, I’m here to make an impact. And I’m here to work with people that genuinely want to make an impact, because those are my core values. And I think breaking through the noise of all of the people that are also either doing that or say that they’re doing that and may or may not be is going to be a great challenge for me.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. All right. So in light of that, connecting folks who have value spirit with you, who you can really help to make the impact that they’ve dreamed of. So if someone’s listening today, they you know, they have started an online business, they maybe they’re an octopus, you know, range and they can see like, hey, there’s bits of this that’s working, right? They’re not failures, but they know that there’s more and they want to have a bigger impact. How can they find more out about you and the work that you do?
Danielle Levy
Yeah, sure. So my website is www.danielleclevy.com and Instagram is probably the the best place to find me. I love receiving DMS Make sure to get back to them all danielle_c_levy.
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it. Excellent. We’ll put that in the Episode Notes for everyone. And, and yeah so Danielle, thank you so much for being on the show. It’s just an absolute pleasure having you here and for everyone listening your time and attention mean the absolute world to us. I hope you got as much out of this episode as I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Danielle Levy
Danielle Levy is a sought after executive who helps 6 and 7-figure online business owners expand with clarity and efficiency. After her experience in the traditional business world, Danielle established the boardroom league to give other entrepreneurs a little black book of trusted industry professionals to help them grow their businesses without long-term overhead.
Want to learn more about Danielle’s work? Check out her website at https://danielleclevy.com/.
Podcast Booking Status: Open
We are looking for podcast guests, and we want to share your story.
Are you a coach, consultant, or advisor for entrepreneurial organizations? If so, let’s do a great show together – and we can promote you to our audience on all our social media channels, website, and email list.
Guest requirements:
- As a coach, you should be experiencing some very good momentum AND be grossing $100K or more annually. We’ll be talking about how you help your clients achieve extraordinary results.
- Consider yourself as equally people and results-oriented in your mission.
- High-authority expert management and independent coaches who work with founder-led entrepreneurial organizations of 40 or more employees. We also encourage guests that are operations/strategy and culture consultants, advisors, and leadership coaches to be guests (no specialties in marketing, branding, sales, or IT, please
- Please, no new coaches (under 3 years), published authors, non-independent coaches, or non-business coaches/consultants.